But I must not give you the notion that all our conferences are so
serious. Many have merely the character of social entertainments, which
are not made here for invited guests, but for any who choose to come;
all are welcome. At these there are often plays given by amateurs, and
improvised from plots which supply the outline, while the performers
supply the dialogue and action, as in the old Italian comedies. The
Altrurians are so quick and fine, in fact, that they often remind me of
the Italians more than any other people. One night there was for my
benefit an American play, as the Altrurians imagined it from what they
had read about us, and they had costumed it from the pictures of us they
had seen in the newspapers Aristides had sent home while he was with us.
The effect was a good deal like that American play which the Japanese
company of Sada Yacco gave while it was in New York. It was all about a
millionaire's daughter, who was loved by a poor young man and escaped
with him to Altruria in an open boat from New York.
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